Our elites have always responded harshly to signs of dissent, often disproportionately. So a peaceful protest as what happened in the infamous Kent State antiwar march in 1970 saw Ohio state militia shooting and killing activists. The Democratic Convention in Chicago, 1968, is commonly accepted to be a "police riot." And of course, most recently, Oakland Police shot a protestor in the head, seriously wounding him [that he happened also to be an Iraq War veteran seemed to garner him special attention by the mainstream media, as if any other activist might have deserved this brutality].

So it goes without saying that what Anonymous claims to be doing in exposing malfeasance in the Long Beach, CA, city government is characterized as a "warning" by elite thought, as if it is activists and organizers who are menacing officials.

You rarely read such headlines as Long Beach Police "warn" Occupy Long Beach activists; or Long Beach city council "warn" medical marijuana advocates; or Long Beach Mayor Foster "warns" free speech rights of photographers.

What elites do is - by mafia standards - by definition correct.

It's one thing for the insular, pro-corporate world of the political beltway to think this of themselves; it's quite another when our media do it for them. But this is why our mainstream media is so dreadful: it serves the elites on bended knee.

The elites hold the convention that "the king can do no wrong," which is an obsolete, medieval method of protecting the power structure from popular scrutiny.

Seventeenth century British elites re-established the monarchy after Cromwell's interregnum to keep popular demands out of reach of the power structure: the monarchy was the one institution able to keep itself away from the public; or as the British elites are fond of saying, "above politics."

The US and its allies have rammed through similar institutions under the guise of global "free" trade that are also "above politics," like the World Trade Organization. These institutions make decisions for the financial industry, the 1%, and are insulated from the demands of people.

Now it seems Long Beach officials have their sights on activists, but Anonymous has put Long Beach in its sights.

The Long Beach Post's headline is by far not the most egregious example of elite narrative, and as an alternative news source to the Long Beach Press-Telegram, it must be commended for even featuring the item. But the question remains why our newspapers of record do not scrutinize such behavior as a city police force detaining photographers: such behavior would warrant a White House Press Conference if done by one of the US's official enemies.

Obviously, even in a sleepy suburb of Los Angeles, like Long Beach, is culpable of serving elites, and is not above scrutiny by activists.

Bottom line, our elites are only continuing a class war, and their overall intention has been loudly expressed in the business press. They want to make the US better for business, not for workers; so they break unions [Indiana being the 23rd state to ban closed-shop trades unions, aka, right-to-work]. The elites want to bring the 19th century sweat shops back home, because they want to compete with places like China.

Should we even be competing with such a labor atrocity as China is never asked among elite media; only "how" can we compete.

So it is encouraging that groups like Occupy, Wikileaks, Anonymous, and Black Bloc tactics are employed. In an open democratic society, such tactics and non-hierarchical organizations would not be needed. We wouldn't need subversive organizations to expose what our governments were doing, at home and abroad: the civil rights abuses, like those alleged against the city of Long Beach, the anti-labor practices like compromising collective-bargaining rights; the war crimes, like those of Abu Graib, Guantanamo, etc., or the broken United Nations conventions to which the US itself is signatory.

These dissident groups are not brick-and-mortar, IRS-ordained groups, like the ACLU or Human Rights Campaign, which can do meaningful work but are often beholden to the same financial industries our mainstream politicians, and Long Beach officials, are beholden to for funding.

So the radical changes we need are not likely to come from above, from these elites and their clients.

It will be the persistent work of these insurgent groups and their tactics that will bring the radical change we need, not more handouts to the elites.

Share this article

Comments

Lowell Denny earned a BA in political science from Washington University. His interest in social justice drew him to LGBTQ activism, third-party politics, an appointment to a municipal civil rights commission, and a 30-day trip to Cuba. He has appeared in numerous periodicals, including the San Francisco Chronicle to Labor Notes Magazine. He is the author of My Socialism (2006, WordPro Press). He lives on the Big Island of Hawaii.